During the winter holiday season there is a long-standing tradition of hanging decorative ornaments or lights from tree-shaped structures, often referred to as Christmas trees. Traditionally, such decorations where hung on actual conifer trees cut from nature. At some point, artificial Christmas trees were developed as synthetic alternatives. These trees were made from artificial materials and designed to replicate all of the characteristics of a real Christmas tree, including the tree's distinct shape. There have been a number of different artificial Christmas tree inventions, but from the outside, they have a distinctive appearance of looking like a tree. In addition all of these are based around the idea of a central trunk to which the external structure is attached. In addition, decorations are sometime hung on garland or wreathes. A key problem with both of those products is that they are not free-standing—they are hung on walls or draped over a pre-existing structure. In addition, garland has weak structural integrity and is unable to be rigid over any length.